By Jill Saftel, News Staff
With three exhibition and four regular-season games under their belt, head coach Tracey Leone and her women’s soccer team are still searching for their first win of the 2013 season.
But according to Leone, that win might not be far off.
“We’re around the corner from a breakthrough game, but if we can get that we’ll really run through and get to the other side to get on a roll and winning some games,” she said. “You want to see them be rewarded for their hard work with victories and goals.”
After exhibition matches in early August against the Boston Breakers, Boston University and Colgate University, the Huskies kicked off their regular season slate with a trip to Los Angeles, Calif. to face No. 5 University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) on Aug. 23.
UCLA came out on top in the 4-0 final, but the difficult out of conference schedule is no accident for Leone’s squad.
“Like last year, we have a very challenging schedule out of conference, this one is actually even harder,” Leone said. “We definitely are playing against some great teams. We’re playing better soccer in this schedule earlier, relative to last year.”
The Huskies stayed in Los Angeles to take on Loyola Marymount University (LMU) on Aug. 25 and the Lions edged out the Huskies by a single goal with a 1-0 win. Even though the Huskies were handed two losses on their early season road trip, getting to play against national caliber teams is part of the learning process for a Husky squad riddled with young talent.
“We got to play UCLA and LMU and our players from the West Coast got to play in front of their friends and family out there,” Leone said. “It was a learning trip, to play against UCLA who could potentially be national champions, it’s huge to learn from them. And LMU was a close game, we created some good chances.”
Leone uses the beginning of the season to schedule a grueling out of conference slate as an opportunity for her team to prepare for the intensity of Colonial Athletic Association play. She said that playing teams from conferences like the Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC has been great for the Huskies.
Northeastern returned to Parsons Field for two out of conference home games last weekend, facing Northwestern University Friday and the University of South Carolina Sunday.
The Gamecocks bested the Huskies 3-0, but against Northwestern it was a different story. Northeastern pushed the Wildcats to double overtime and settled in a 1-1 draw.
“They played really well against Northwestern for really the whole game, we really just have to capitalize on more chances,” Leone said.
Their conference slate kicks off with a road trip to Charleston, S.C. for a game against the College of Charleston. Until that first conference matchup on Sept. 27, the Huskies have five more chances to find their groove in nonconference games, beginning tonight at the University of New Hampshire.
“I think it’s a little bit of getting our newcomers more confident and comfortable and us as a team getting more confident and comfortable in front of the goal,” Leone said. “It’s developing an attitude to really get in front of the goal and fight, scratch and claw out there and focus. I just think it’s having the focus and an attitude in that attacking third of the field. We are creating the chances, we need to finish those.”
In its last two seasons, Northeastern women’s soccer has graduated two leading scorers. First Greta Samuelsdottir, and last year all-time leading scorer Veronica Napoli. The shift in scoring power means that Leone is looking for more players to step up in front of the net.
“Hanna Terry, Hannah O’Donnell and Morgan Hilby are the ones that we’d look to to carry that load, but I also think it could spread around,” she said. “We’ve got some capable people that can put the goal in the back of the net. We have quite a few players who can carry that load, it might be a little more spread out unlike last few years when it was really one person leading scorers.”
Terry, a senior forward/midfielder, had a career-high seven shots, five of which were on goal, in Northeastern’s 1-1 draw with Northwestern. Junior forward Lahaina Zoller scored the Huskies’ lone goal in that game, and Leone said she could expect some offensive contributions from her as well.
Leone said with the camaraderie and chemistry between her veterans and newcomers, her squad is keeping and possessing the ball better than they have this early in past seasons. That’s coupled with a strong back line in front of a great goalkeeper in junior Paige Burnett and a flexible team able to adjust to playing multiple systems.
“I think they’re honestly a really ambitious group,” she said. “They really want to do big things and that’s exciting. They are really on a mission from the get-go to do well in our conference and I’m excited to take one day at a time with them and enjoy practice with them. It’s a great aura and atmosphere to come into and see and coach and I think people outside our team see that when they come watch them play.”
